January 25th, 2018

Had a good conversation with Rob this morning - he phoned at 8:00 a.m., not realizing the time difference - he and Helen are in Houston, where it's three hours later.  Rob's mom is traveling with them until June, and then they'll be coming to Canada to truck around Ontario with me for awhile!  Looking forward to that!
Monday night, Cheryl phoned me at 3:00 a.m. to tell me that there was a tsunami warning out for the whole coast of BC and Vancouver Island.  After a lot of searching online, I found a local site which said that Comox was in no danger - and later on, the tsunami warning was canceled altogether - not before the people of Tofino evacuated their homes, though.  This was all caused by a 7.9 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Alaska. In the end, I don't think there was any damage anywhere, although a lot of communities got a real scare.  Here, there was the usual strong winds and rain - but what else is new?
Tuesday evening, Adrian picked me up for NICS (North Island Choral Society) - she says she can manage picking me up every Tuesday, since it's just once a week!
Wednesday, I put out my rope lights - the only lights in the park, really - so that people who pick me up in the evening can actually see my site! Finally went for a walk to the ocean, too, as it was actually sunny for the morning.
Tonight is church choir - Barb is picking me up for that.  I'm hoping that she will want to go grocery shopping sometime this week - I'm committed to bringing soup to church on Sunday.

My latest basket - need it for the yarn I accumulated in Ottawa.

Typical view from my window.

The ocean, the morning after the tsunami warning.

The latest project:  a blanket for Millie - maybe a kitty in the middle . . . 

The new basket, in the context of other yarn baskets!

Two of my stained glass scarves, made in the fall

January 17 - 20, 2018

What a week - rain, rain, rain and gloom, gloom, gloom!!! The North Island Choral Society seems like it'll be fun:  we're singing some Gounod, Arcadelt, Couperin, Debussy and Rachmaninoff for the April concert.  I'm in the soprano section, since they are a bit shy of strong soprano voices (that's unusual!) and am fine except for some sustained Gs and As -and the occasional B above the staff - ouch!!! I was a little apprehensive about driving my rig here and then backing into my site - but I think I'll just bite the bullet and do it!
Thursday was church choir practice - a bit disappointing - the director (Paul) says for the hymns that we are welcome to sing harmony if we'd like to . . .  and the anthem is a pretty straightforward piece by Don Besig. I'm singing alto here, since that's where the need is greatest.
Today is Saturday and I'm catching up on this blog as I wait for Barb to pick me up to take me grocery shopping - how awesome is that?  I was procrastinating - knowing that I had to get groceries today, but putting off the inside cleanup necessary for moving my rig. Barb says she'll drive me to church on Sundays and choir practice on Thursdays, too!!  Bev is driving me to knitting group on Monday, so that just leaves the Tuesday rehearsal to drive my rig into town - actually, to Courtney.  Once a week I can definitely handle!  Nice people here - but then again, there are nice people everywhere!!

January 14-16, 2017

Sunday - my first time singing in the Comox choir - went quite well - nowhere near Robert's standards, of course, but okay.  It'll take a while to adjust.  I drove my rig to church and parked in an excellent, long spot at the end of the parking lot, next to a fence.  Excellent until I wanted to leave - had to wait around for about 20 minutes for other people to leave, and still had to manoeuvre my way out. Next time, I'll park on the street!  Very, very powerful sermon delivered by a lay minister - paralleling the story of Samuel as a boy being called by God, with her own acceptance (after struggles) of her identification as a lesbian! Extremely personal, really honest, amazing talk! Think I'll stick with this church!
Monday, Bev picked me up and drove me to the knitting group, where I worked on my crocheted blanket and heard news and gossip - will take me awhile to get to know everybody's names and history!
Tuesday, Adrian picked me up and drove me to the North Island Choral Society rehearsal - I said that I would like to check it out for one evening before deciding to pay my $50 and join.  It was fun - about 70 people in this group - about the same as the Galveston College Community Chorale.  Some good solid voices in this choir - really for people with some choral experience and a desire to sing  I'm in the soprano section, which is a bit sparse -  not really in numbers, but in volume.  We're doing some Gounod, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, and Couperin.  Not a bad repertoire - as long as I can park my rig in the parking lot, I'll be back next week! Adrian said she would drive me to choir on Thursday, which is awesome - means I don't have to pack up and unhook until Sunday!
The sun actually came out for about an hour today. By the time I got it together to go outside, I had missed it - so went to the beach under clouds and made it back to my rig five minutes before the rain started again!
I'm missing Ottawa and my friends there - don't usually feel this way when I'm parked in a new place.  I think it's a combination of the fact that I flew here instead of driving my rv, and the bleakness of the weather and the rv park.  Wish I had my car so that getting involved in activities wasn't a problem.  Have to decide how many times in a week I'm willing to drive my rig into town and find parking!

Comox United Church

My work in progress

Cape Lazo RV Park- my rig is back centre

January 4th to 13th, 2017

January 4th - Judy got up and drove me to the airport for 5:00 a.m.!  Crazy - should have booked a later flight - guess I didn't consider that one is supposed to get to the airport two hours before the plane takes off! Pretty uneventful flight to Vancouver, then a 1 1/2 hour wait as the flight to Comox was delayed three times! Jesse and Millie picked me up at the Comox airport and took me to their house in Cumberland, where I unpacked and checked out my rig!! Adrienne cooked an awesome dinner and I slept in my rig in their driveway that night, then got up the next morning and drove off to Comox.  I stopped to fill up with propane, then found my site in the Cape Lazo RV Park - #10. There was no one in the office, but a plastic bag on the post at my site giving me all the important info - like the wifi password!! I got all hooked up and watched some Netflix before making dinner and going to bed.  Friday I walked to the beach, Saturday rented a car from Enterprise and drove around a bit.  Sunday was church - nice little united church about 10 minutes away - I won't be able to walk there - in fact, this park is nestled in the bush, so nothing is within walking distance except the beach.  Sunday night I took Jesse, Adrienne, and Millie out to dinner - what an awesome family they are! Monday I went to the Knitting Group at the church and met some ladies, who seem quite nice.  Tuesday and Wednesday I drove around a bit more, got some groceries, found the local yarn shop; Thursday I went to choir practice - small choir - 15 present out of 23.  I told the director that I would be happy to sing whatever part he would like me to - so I'm in the alto section currently, although he considered tenor for me.  We'll see . . .  Robert phoned to check in with me, before choir practice - must be really weird for him to be home on a Thursday evening - and Susan was at choir practice.  Friday I started updating this blog - finally have my laptop, so I can input info and photos.  Couldn't do that with my iPad. So here it is Saturday already and I'm actually caught up to today's date.  It's so dreary outside - hasn't really stopped raining since I gor here.  Oh well, better than snow, I guess.